From National Public Radio
Mona Haydar‘s music is simultaneously of the moment and rooted in tradition. Haydar’s breakout song, 2017’s “Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab),” a rap about women who choose to wear the traditional Muslim headscarf, was named one of the best protest anthems of the year by Billboard. Now, Haydar’s latest EP Barbarican, redefines the meaning of barbarian.
The poet-turned-rapper is Syrian-American and grew up in Flint, Mich. “If I went to Syria, I was the American. In Flint, I was the little Arab girl,” Haydar says. “So this identity that I’m speaking to is, ‘We are whole in and of ourselves.'”
Haydar has a master’s degree in Christian ethics, which she says informs both her historical and present day social location as a woman living in America. The EP’s lead single, “Barbarian,” sets that idea to music.
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